Kaddo Bowrani (Afghani Pumpkin)

I crave this dish fairly regularly, having become addicted to the version at The Helmand in San Francisco. Well, Helmand is open again but I haven't made it back yet, and I picked up a lovely sugar pumpkin at the pumpkin patch last month.

I cobbled the recipe together from the Chowhound Home Cooking board. I used Allstonian's pumpkin recipe, and mainly followed the yogurt and meat sauces from a SF Chronicle article. The SF Helmand pumpkin is sloooowly cooked in tons of oil and sugar which makes it rich, creamy and truly amazing, but not quite right for a main dish.

It came together relatively quickly, in about 1.5 hours with some down time to steam a vegetable and make a salad -- not a typical weeknight meal for us but I'll certainly make this again when I can carve out the time, and hopefully while pumpkins are still available.

Pumpkin:
One 2 to 2.5 pound sugar pumpkin
2 T vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 t ground cinnamon

Yogurt sauce:
1 cup plain full-fate yogurt
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ t dried mint
¼ t or more salt

Meat Sauce (see recipe to follow)

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut the ends of the pumpkin to create a flat surface, and peel with a U-shaped peeler. Cut into wedges, quarters or sixths depending on the size of the pumpkin. Remove seeds and strings.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a Dutch oven. Brown the pumpkin pieces, turning every few minutes until golden brown on all sides. Do not scorch it.

Mix sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over pumpkin. Bake for 30 minutes, or until tender, basting with the juices half-way through. [From the recipe post: This seems like a lot of sugar, but go with it. The dish doesn't come out sweet in the end, and it just isn't as tasty if you cut down on the sugar.]

While the pumpkin is baking, make the yogurt sauce and the meat sauce.

Yogurt sauce: mix together ingredients until smooth and season to taste with salt.

Meat Sauce
2 T corn oil or other neutral oil
1 large onion, finely diced
1 1/2 pounds ground round
1 small can tomatoes, roughly pureed*
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 t ground coriander
1 1/2 t salt
1 t freshly ground pepper
1/2 t ground turmeric
2 T tomato paste
1 1/3 cups water

* I drain the juices into the pan then whir the tomatoes briefly in the can with an immersion blender

Heat the oil in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan until it ripples. Add the onions and sauté over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until they are golden brown, about 20 minutes. Add the beef, stirring to break it up into tiny pieces, until the meat is no longer pink, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the tomato, garlic, coriander, salt, pepper and turmeric. Cook for 5 minutes. Blend in the tomato paste. Add the water and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Use 2 to 2 1/2 cups of the sauce for the Kaddo Bourani. Cool, cover and refrigerate the remaining sauce for another dish. Yields 5 cups sauce.

To serve, place the pumpkin wedges on a serving plate, ladle the meat sauce over all, and drizzle with the yogurt sauce. Delicious!

NOTE: The photo above is sourced from and links to a really great food blog, Habeas Brulee. Check it out! I can't wait to make that pumpkin seed-cocoa nib brittle!

Lamb Kebabs & Gumbo (sort of)

Monday was lamb kebabs made of ground lamb, scallions, matzo meal, an egg and a bunch of a Persian 7-spice mix I'm trying to use up. We have tons of crudite left over from MZ's birthday (of course we didn't run out of anything) so I made a Greek salad and a cucumber-yogurt sauce to go with the kebabs in w/w pita. It was a really good dinner, and very on the fly. MZ ate everything, so worth repeating.

Still trying to work through the crudite, tonight I made a sort of gumbo. I saw this recipe and thought of the turkey andouille sausage in my fridge, then realized that real gumbo has celery and bell pepper, which would address a few other lurkers, too. So I made up this combined Cook's Illustrated-Quick Cook never-the-twain shall-meet recipe that saved me from the insanity of a 1-hr roux or the disappointment of a pallid imitation. And served it over brown rice, completely separating this stew from its roots. Although MZ tasted not a bit (after devouring a spicy hot tamale pie last night), we liked it, I'll make it again.

Not Quick but Not Altogether Traditional Shrimp & Sausage Gumbo
1 lb. turkey andouille sausage
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup flour
2 red onions, diced small
1 celery rib, diced small
1 medium red bell pepper, diced small
6 cloves garlic, minced
2.5 t Penzey's Cajun spice mix
2 bay leaves
1 bottle clam juice
1 quart low sodium chix broth
10 oz frozen okra
3/4 lb. cooked bay shrimp
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions

Assuming this is a raw rather than smoked version of "Andouille", brown the sausage in 1 T vegetable oil in a dutch oven. Remove to a collander lined with paper towels to drain.

This part is straight out of Cook's Illustrated -- it's fussy, but amazing chemistry and really doesn't take that long to get the desired result: In the same pan, heat the oil to 200 degrees. Lightly spread the flour over the oil, and stir to combine. Turn heat to medium and stir constantly until the roux turns a copper penny shade. The flour will thin considerably (thus the need for something in the end to thicken the stew, according to CI). Add the onions, celery and red pepper and stir to combine. The mixture will seem a bit gluey but wonderfully fragrant. Stir frequently as the vegetables soften, ~8 minutes. Add the seasoning and garlic and stir.

Slowly add the clam juice in a steady stream, stirring constantly. Now add the chicken stock. When the mixture is full combined, add the okra*. Bring to a boil, add the bay leaves and turn to a simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the reserved sausage and simmer another 30 minutes to allow the flavors to develop. Adjust seasonings and add the shrimp. Stir, simmer for 5 minutes and serve over rice, garnished with thinly sliced scallions.

Easily serves 6-8 people.

* This is where I should have added a 28 oz can of drained diced tomatoes, but MZ woke up and I lost track. I would do this next time, if only to increase the vegetable content of this one-dish dinner.